Norman E. Shumway and the Early Heart Transplants

Norman E. Shumway and the Early Heart Transplants

The first human-to-human heart transplant in the United States and the second in the world was performed by Adrian Kantrowitz 3 days later, on December 6, 1967, at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. The recipient was an 18-day-old male infant who received the heart of a 2-day-old anencephalic male. The procedure, carried out under hypothermia rather than cardiopulmonary bypass, was technically successful; however, the patient died 6 hours after surgery with severe metabolic and respiratory acidosis. Barnard performed his second transplant on January 2, 1968, also at Groote Schuur Hospital. The patient, a 58-year-old man who received the heart of a 24-year-old man, was still alive on October 23, 1968—the date of compilation of the world's earliest heart transplants worldwide.

JFK’s Dangerous Playbook for Trump – POLITICO Magazine

JFK’s Dangerous Playbook for Trump – POLITICO Magazine

But if you really want to worry about where the limits might lie when a president decides to go after individual companies—and even individual executives—there’s a cautionary tale from half a century ago that seems right on point. And the president stretching the boundaries of his power was John F. Kennedy.

In the spring of 1962, President Kennedy was celebrating a key labor agreement between the United States Steel Company—the nation’s biggest—and the United Steelworkers’ Union. Steel was a major component of the nation’s manufacturing sector. So the modest 2.5 per cent wage increase promised to act as a brake on rising prices, and by extension a victory against a boost in inflation that was on the top of the White House’s concern.

A few days later, on April 10, US Steel chairman Roger Blough came into the Oval Office and handed Kennedy a statement announcing that the company was raising prices for steel 3.5 per cent—a hike other steel companies would immediately follow.